Question on polishing and buffing

[Snaggletooth]

I've been playing around with polishing the lower fork tubes and this is after the first go over with the emory compound. Compared with what I started with it's looking pretty good. Still have a couple of steps to go so it should get better.

 

The thing is I have lot of pitting where the stickers were and on the inside (back) of the tubes. I'd like to be abe to smooth that out where is can be seen. The back side I'm not so worried about and it gives me a place to experiment.

 

This may be more than a lil wet and dry sanding can handle. Not looking for a show finish but would like to clean it up a bit.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Mike

[Sylvester]

It must still be cold in Omaha and you have way too much time on your hands. I appreciate your desire to have the bike look good but that is a lot of work. I for one would rather be riding and that is why I move away from Omaha. It does look better though.

 

[Snaggletooth]

LOL! Morning Jim.

 

Yep....cold and snowing again today. Actually I bought an extra set of forks to rebuild as I had a scar on one of the orginals inners when I first bought the bike in '07. Did a repair with JB Weld and rebuilt them then and it has held up until late last fall. So while killing time and waiting for parts I started playing with the buffing idea.

 

And then.............I bought a set of MKII forks to do the upgrade to the better brakes. Got the rotors......got the R1 calipers and rebuild kits.......got new pads......and need to order parts to rebuild the forks and new SS lines to convert the brake system to old school. So while that is being done I'll have this polished set on the bike while I polish the MKII set.

 

Could have been worse. I was thinking of pulling motor and doing the paint and polish on that!!! Maybe next year. Maybe. LOL!

 

But I'm up early today to shovel the drive before I head to work. You can tell I'm all over that right! And they wonder why people leave this place.

 

Later.

 

Mike

[Redneck]

Start sanding with 220 grit when the pits are almost gone use 400 grit till pits are gone. If you are machine polishing start polishing if you are hand polishing sand with 1000 grit before you start polishing.

[bongobobny]

I ended up spending about an hour each tube on mine! Like you said not show bike but definate improvement. Pitting is very hard to remove but as suggested start with a fairly ruff sandpaper and work up in numbers. Myself I have a plastic wheel similar to a wire wheel that I use to bring the rest of the metal down to the bottom of the pits and then I switch to a "paint stripper" attachment that I hook up to my drill press to bring up the shine a bit. Then I go to a couple different courseness buffing compounds until either I'm satisfied with the finish or I just plain give up...

[Marcarl]

I ended up spending about an hour each tube on mine! Like you said not show bike but definate improvement. Pitting is very hard to remove but as suggested start with a fairly ruff sandpaper and work up in numbers. Myself I have a plastic wheel similar to a wire wheel that I use to bring the rest of the metal down to the bottom of the pits and then I switch to a "paint stripper" attachment that I hook up to my drill press to bring up the shine a bit. Then I go to a couple different courseness buffing compounds until either I'm satisfied with the finish or I just plain give up...

So this is what you call being ROMANTIC????

[Yammer Dan]

Whats Polishing??

[GaryZ]

Man, I need to quit readin' this forum.

Now I want to take my forks off and polish them.

 

Looking Good!

 

BTW:

I found that a cotton buffing ball in my drill press works really good when polishing parts that can be held in your hands.

[dingy]

Here is buffer I made. Dirty, haven't used since last spring.

 

It is a one HP centrifugal pump style motor & bracket.

 

It has an adapter shaft that was made for a centrifugal pump application. I have two sets of buffing wheels I swap back & forth. One I use courser grits with & other I use with Mothers buffing compound.

 

Bolts down to work bench.

 

The stator cover in 2nd picture was tarnished quite a bit. I first chemically stripped clear coat, this makes it so much easier to polish. Then started with 320 grit up to 1000 grit paper. Then buffed with several grades of polish.

 

Gary

[Sylvester]

LOL! Morning Jim.

 

Yep....cold and snowing again today. Actually I bought an extra set of forks to rebuild as I had a scar on one of the orginals inners when I first bought the bike in '07. Did a repair with JB Weld and rebuilt them then and it has held up until late last fall. So while killing time and waiting for parts I started playing with the buffing idea.

 

And then.............I bought a set of MKII forks to do the upgrade to the better brakes. Got the rotors......got the R1 calipers and rebuild kits.......got new pads......and need to order parts to rebuild the forks and new SS lines to convert the brake system to old school. So while that is being done I'll have this polished set on the bike while I polish the MKII set.

 

Could have been worse. I was thinking of pulling motor and doing the paint and polish on that!!! Maybe next year. Maybe. LOL!

 

But I'm up early today to shovel the drive before I head to work. You can tell I'm all over that right! And they wonder why people leave this place.

 

Later.

 

Mike

 

I believe that it was snowing when I left Omaha in 1985! Only once since then did I get out my coal shovel to move snow, that was in December 2010.

 

[Snaggletooth]

That looks pretty good Gary. Nice shine on it. You leaving it raw or giving it a coat of clear coat?

 

I had a 2hp bench grinder I rarely use so I swapped out the stones with a set of 8" buffing wheels. One for each compound and then a unsewn wheel for the finally buff. Wouldn't even want to try to do this by hand.

 

I'm going to taken a lead from Bongo and try one of those flapper wheels and see how that works out on the pits. Should save some time.

[dingy]

That looks pretty good Gary. Nice shine on it. You leaving it raw or giving it a coat of clear coat?

 

I had a 2hp bench grinder I rarely use so I swapped out the stones with a set of 8" buffing wheels. One for each compound and then a unsewn wheel for the finally buff. Wouldn't even want to try to do this by hand.

 

I'm going to taken a lead from Bongo and try one of those flapper wheels and see how that works out on the pits. Should save some time.

 

This was from last year, I used a clear coat on them. It was uncoated in picture.

 

Gary